Mapping and segmentation of barriers & description of supermarket sector

Efficient solutions for supermarket heating, cooling and refrigeration - such as integrated systems or the use of natural refrigerant-based equipment - are already available on the market in Europe. However, their use is not yet widespread due to remaining non-technological barriers, including lack of knowledge and awareness, social, organizational and political barriers.

The European project SuperSmart aims at removing these barriers and additionally supports the introduction of the EU Ecolabel for food retail stores. The EU Ecolabel can encourage supermarket stakeholders to implement environmentally friendly and energy efficient technologies and thus reduce the environmental impact of food retail stores.

Within the project, a preliminary investigation on perceived non-technological barriers amongst supermarket stakeholders has been carried out. The clear identification of barriers and their contextualisation in terms of relevance, geographical distribution, stakeholder relation is necessary to properly address countermeasures and in particular to develop campaigns to raise the general awareness and spread the information about energy efficient and eco-friendly supermarkets and training activities within the following specific topics: